MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FINANCE.

You might expect the Museum of American Finance, located on Wall Street in a breathtaking structure that once housed the Bank of New York, to be an enthusiastic proponent of free enterprise. After all, as one exhibit points out, when people buy stocks, it "serve[s] society as a whole, enabling the company to create jobs and produce goods and services."

It's disappointing, then, that the Smithsonian affiliate is more a paean to government oversight than a love letter to unfettered exchange. The world "looks to the Federal Reserve to help stabilize the economy in troubled times," one placard explains. Would-be homeowners and college students...